FILM BC 3119x and y Screenwriting

FALL: Practical workshop in dramatic writing for the screen. Through a series of creative writing exercises, script analysis, and scene work, students explore and develop the basic principles of screenwriting. The final project will be a 30-page, Act One segment for a feature screenplay.

SPRING: Screenplays are the foundation of much of our popular culture, but can they be art? This intensive writing workshop examines the art and practice of the screenplay form, its root in classical narrative structure, the ways in which it differs from the other written arts, and how one can engage its particular tools to express original ideas. Weekly writing assignments and class critique form the heart of this workshop. Students should be prepared to share their work with others and participate fully in class discussion. Students will create two short screenplays and a detailed outline for a feature film script. All students encouraged, but Junior and Senior film majors will be given priority. CLASS TIME spring semester: F 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
Prerequisites: Sign up through the English Department required. Preference given to juniors and senior students majoring or concentrating in film who attend the first class session. (Since this is a Film course, it does not count as a writing course for English majors with a Writing Concentration.) General Education Requirement: The Visual and Performing Arts (ART).
3 points

FILM BC 3119x Screenwriting (FALL)

Practical workshop in dramatic writing for the screen. Through a series of creative writing exercises, script analysis, and scene work, students explore and develop the basic principles of screenwriting. Either a polished short film script or a preliminary draft of a feature screenplay is the final project.
Prerequisites: Departmental sign-up required. Preference given to students concentrating in film and restricted to Juniors and Seniors. (Since this is a Film Concentration course, it does not count as a writing course for English majors with a Writing Concentration.)
3 points

FILM BC 3120y Feature Film Screenwriting

Workshop in feature film writing. Students will enter the course with a story idea, ready to start a feature screenplay. Through lectures and workshop discussions, the course will critique the details of character development and scene construction. Analysis of student work will prompt generalized conversations/lectures on the fundamentals of film writing. Emphasis will be placed on character as the engine of story.

FILM BC 3145y Topics in Literature and Film: Memory and Forgetting

Links literature to painting, photography and film, as well as texts in psychology (Freudian trauma theory and recovered memory). We will explore the role of personal and cultural memory in the creative process through key examples from the medieval "memory rooms" to the work of Alain Resnais. Weekly screenings. Also listed as ENGL 3145.
General Education Requirement: Literature (LIT). General Education Requirement: The Visual and Performing Arts (ART). Not offered in 2009-2010.
3 points also listed as ENGL 3145

FILM BC 3200x and y Film Production

Exploration of basic narrative tools at the filmmaker's disposal, with a particular emphasis on camera work and editing. Examines basic cinematic syntax that provides a foundation for storytelling on the screen.
Prerequisites: FILM BC3201 and permission of instructor. Sophomore standing. Enrollment limited to 12 students. General Education Requirement: The Visual and Performing Arts (ART).
3 points

FILM BC 3201x Introduction to Film and Film Theory

Introductory survey of the history, aesthetics and theories of film. Topics in American and International cinema are explored through weekly screenings, readings, discussion, and lecture. A complete introduction to cinema studies, this course is also the prerequisite for further film courses at Columbia and Barnard.
General Education Requirement: The Visual and Performing Arts (ART).
3 points

FILM BC 3215y Auteur Study: TBA

Close examinatin of the oeuvre of a single filmmaker within a larger cinematic, aesthetic and historical context.
Prerequisites: FILM BC3201 Introduction to Film or equivalent. General Education Requirement: The Visual and Performing Arts (ART). Not offered in 2009-2010.
3 points

FILM BC 3220y Topics in Cinema: War and Propaganda

Examines the changing role of film in dramatizing, promoting and critiquing American participation in the military conflicts over the past 70 years. From the gung-ho patriotism of Howard Hawks's SGT. YORK and the front-line reportage of Lewis Milestone's A WALK IN THE SUN to the ambivalence of John Frankenheimer's THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE and the calculated cynicism of Barry Levinson's WAG THE DOG, we explore shifting political perspectives and aesthetic strategies.

FILM BC 3301y Advanced Production

Advanced Production will teach students how to create a narrative or documentary film; emphasizing the steps taking in pre-production, production and post-production. Through hands-on workshops and theory, students will learn narrative editing, camera lenses, lighting and audio equipment. Students will work in teams of four, learning the roles and responsibilities of the different crew members.
Prerequisites: Film Production BC 3200. Enrollment limited to 12 students.
3 points